Netflix’s Sense8 Expected To Go On For Five Seasons

Fans of Netflix’s Sense8 may be in for a solid five-year run of the show if it turns out to be in Netflix’s best interest.

Obviously, the show doesn’t really have any fans yet since it’s not actually out yet, but if it does find a substantial audience (and there’s a pretty good chance it will), fans will be able to expect years of the show to come.

In an interview with Zap2it, writer J. Michael Straczynski was asked if Sense8 is meant to have more than one season if that’s what Netflix wants.

He responded, “We pitched it as a five-year story. We’ve mapped out five seasons of this thing, our actor deals are being made for five seasons, five or six depending on the breaks. So we imagined this over the long, long haul. The first season is the origin story for our characters and then we kind of go from there.”

As long as things continue to go as well for Netflix with its originals as it has so far, it seems likely that the company will play this thing out for the full run. So far, they’ve been actively renewing their originals (none that we know of have been canceled yet). But the likelihood goes even further than that.

Netflix goes out of its way to give shows conclusions. Even shows from other networks. As you may know, the company recently acquired the fourth and final season of AMC’s The Killing essentially so it could give the show a proper conclusion after AMC decided to cancel it prematurely.

The reasoning is that it is in Netflix’s best interest for the shows it offers people to have conclusions. A show with an actual conclusion is worth more to the company simply because more people are likely to watch the show if it has one. Who wants to start something that they know doesn’t have an end (especially when there are already so many viewing options)?

Now that doesn’t necessarily mean Netflix won’t force an earlier conclusion to Sense8 if things don’t work out as well as planned, but if a five-season story is what was pitched from the get go, that’s probably a good sign that Netflix is already expecting to be in this for the long haul.

Sense8 comes from some big names in sci-fi with Straczynski as well as Andy and Lana Wachowski (of The Matrix fame) behind it. Straczynski is the guy who created Babylon 5. He’s also a longtime comic book writer. The point is these names alone have their built-in audiences. Sense8 will probably have to be a huge dud not to gain a substantial enough audience for Netflix to deem it not worthy of continuation.

From the sound of it, it’s going to be an incredibly grand project. So far, they’re still in the writing phase, and a 2015 debut is looking more and more likely.